


Found

by Takada_Saiko



Category: The Blacklist (US TV)
Genre: Cabal, F/M, Future Fic, Tom Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-11-23 09:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18150296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/pseuds/Takada_Saiko
Summary: Set several months after Red's trial, the team is deep a dangerous struggle with the Cabal. Liz receives a strange call from law enforcement in Germany. They've picked a man up claiming to be her dead husband.





	1. Chapter 1

She could hear him talking, but his worlds swirled together, bending in on top of one another so that they were unrecognizable. Like buzzing, distant and garbled. If she turned to look at him, if she forced herself to focus on him, maybe she could make out whatever he was saying. She didn't, though. She couldn't bring herself to care. Instead, she watched the clouds slip past outside the window as the started their descent, his voice serving only as background noise to her raging thoughts until -

"Keen?"

Liz was dragged roughly back into the present moment and she turned, finding Ressler peering worriedly at her from the bench seat across aisle. "I'm okay." The answer was automatic, and if her partner's expression was anything to go by, it didn't have him fooled for a second.

"I thought we were past lying."

"What do you want me to say, Ress?" She watched his lips twitch downward. He didn't have a ready answer for that, and she pulled in a breath she hoped would help to steady her nevers. It didn't, and she leaned her head back against the headrest. "We never should have come. We don't have the time to waste."

"You don't think it's him."

Liz wasn't sure if it was a question or an acknowledgement. She turned back to the window. It didn't matter. "Of course I don't think it's him." The dead didn't just come back to life. Not when they were really dead, at any rate.

" _We're making our final descent into Cologne Bonn Airport,_ " Edward's voice sounded over the speakers.

"Hey." Ressler waited until Liz finally turned back to look at him. "You can't blame yourself for needing to be sure. I'm with you every step of the way."

She nodded, not risking her voice. They would be in and out, back in DC in under twenty-four hours, and she'd be able to focus. The Cabal was on their doorstep and they didn't dare take them on with distractions hanging over their head. Ressler was right. She had to go. Even if her head knew it wasn't him, she still had to convince her heart.

* * *

The German police met them at the Cologne Bonn Airport and escorted them to where the man was being held. There had been a raid based on an anonymous tip - one of many Reddington had sent out across the globe to see what sort of Cabal strongholds he could manipulate the local law enforcement into stirring up for him - and they had caught sight of an SUV that had been fleeing the scene. The German police had pursued, there'd been a chase that had ended in a wreck, and they'd found the man cuffed in the backseat.

"He asked for you by name," the officer told Liz as he led both FBI agents down the hall. "We tried pulling his records, but they all came back as deceased. The photo we sent -"

"Photos can be altered," Liz said tightly and the German police officer looked over at her, startled by her tone.

"Agent Keen, I'm not certain -"

"It's fine," Ressler cut him off. "We just need to meet with him personally."

The German officer nodded slowly, his expression still uncertain, and paused at a door. "He's here. The room is fitted with video and audio. A man will be outside the door if you need him."

Liz nodded, glancing to the man in question that was already at his post. She looked to Ressler. "Could you…?

"No way, Keen. You're not going in there alone until we know who we're dealing with."

She tried for a smile. "You heard the man. Video and audio, and both of you will be right outside." She watched him struggle with it for a moment before finally nodding, and the guard at the door buzzed her in. Alone.

Liz stepped in, finding a tall, lean figure standing with his back to her. Dark hair, familiar posture, and when he spoke - turning as he did - she felt her breath catch in her throat. "I told you, I'm not saying another thing until you let me talk to… Liz."

"Tom." Her dead husband's name escaped her lips without permission and she watched an equally familiar smile start to pull at his split lip, the expression reaching his eyes. He looked tired, bruised from the wreck. A cut over his eyebrow and there was blood on the collar of his shirt, though that looked older than just a few hours.

"You're here. They wouldn't tell me if they got ahold of you. They wouldn't even tell me if they tried. I didn't know…" He stopped, reigning himself in, and there was a brief flash of hurt - old and deep, like he'd wrestled with a painful question for a while now - that she saw him force back just as quickly. "It doesn't matter. You're here." He stepped forward, and for the first time she heard the cuffs on his wrists clink, drawing her attention away from those dark blue eyes that she had once known so well. "Liz? Babe, say something."

The old term of endearment jolted her. "You've been dead two years."

He blinked hard, looking away for just a moment. "I… it's been two years?"

"Yes."

He shook his head. "I had no idea."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was… I remember the hospital, I think. The lights were… in and out, and then the next time I opened my eyes I was in a cell. Hooked up to a bunch of medical equipment and it… hurt like hell." He grimaced, and Liz watched as she thought he got lost in thought for a long moment.

"Then what?"

"Then they saved my life. If I was ever anywhere other than the complex before then, I didn't know it. The raid was the first time that they moved me."

"What did they want?"

"I don't know. I have some ideas, but… Liz." The smile returned and he took a step closer, holding her gaze. "You're okay. They wouldn't tell me anything. No one would. How's Agnes?"

"She's safe."

"Good. That's… good. Are you getting me out of here? I wanna see her."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

If he'd brushed her curt tone off to shock, that forced him to acknowledge that it was more. "Liz, what's wrong?"

"You were _dead_ ," she said again. "Cooper identified your body. There wasn't any question."

He stared at her, his jaw clenching just a little in a familiar, tense gesture that she'd seen again and again over the years. "Liz? Look at me."

She did.

"I'm right here." He stepped closer again and the door behind her opened. He glanced past her, but Liz couldn't look away. It was all she could do to hold it together, and she had to hold it together.

"Liz," Ressler called out softly from behind her before breathing, "Hell. Tom."

Dark blue eyes snapped back to meet hers. "Liz," he called out again, his voice pleading. "I'm right here. Whoever Cooper saw… I don't know. I don't know, but it's me."

Liz squared her shoulders, meeting the man who looked like her husband's eyes. "I trust Cooper. Completely. That means someone either used a body double to fool him then, or they're trying to use a double now."

Tom had told her about the doubles coming out of the old Russian site that he'd investigated with Halcyon. They hadn't been perfect, but they'd been damn close. Altered to look like the people they were replacing, trained to act like them. The Cabal would certainly have the means, and it would be like them to play on an old heartache, wrenching it back up and forcing her to choose between a hope she'd never dared to have or turning him away. Turning Tom away. She knew she couldn't.

When he took another step towards her, only a few steps between them now, she heard the German guard join them in the room. "Lizzie, please. Ask me anything. It's me. I'll prove it to you."

Liz shook her head. "No." She pulled in a trembling breath. She didn't trust herself to. "You'll be transferred back to the United States where my team will personally oversee a series of tests. There won't be any third parties, no chance for error or for manipulation. We can't risk it."

"Okay."

That caught her by surprise. She had expected more of a fight, either from Tom or a double, whatever the case turned out to be. "Okay?"

He gave a thin, mirthless chuckle. "Fighting you has never gotten me anywhere. The sooner you get your proof, the sooner you stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you did after…. Like you don't know who I am."

He held her eyes and it was everything Liz could do not to reach out. They were too close. There was too much at stake. As desperate as she was to believe that, somehow, the man she loved loved had come back from the dead for her, she didn't have the luxury of being wrong.

* * *

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

 

She hadn't looked at him like that in years. The careful, cool distrust reminded him of the days in and following the boat. The days when she thought he was a stranger wearing her husband's face.

Tom didn't push his luck as Liz and Ressler went through the protocol to transfer him into their custody, the cuffs remaining on the whole time. While Liz did everything she could not to look at him, he kept catching Ressler glancing over, as if he were trying to assess for himself if he thought this was a set up or not.

They had come in Reddington's jet. The same one that Tom had inadvertently helped him scam off of a gunrunner. It had been some time now since he had spent much of his focus on Liz's would-be father. Early on he'd worried about what the imposter might do if he thought Liz knew, but as time had worn on Tom had redirected his limited energy to finding a way to get out, to get back to his family. He'd gotten close a couple of times, but with each failed attempt they had locked him down even tighter.

Now, as he was being led into the plane like a prisoner, he couldn't help but think about the man that had lied to Liz about being her father…. and the fact that she wouldn't listen to a thing Tom said about it until she was certain he was who he said he was.

Tom kept quiet as Ressler sat him down, gruff and cold, and took the seat across from him. Liz sat on the bench across, both with a clear view of him, but Tom had to turn if he wanted to look at Liz.

He waited until they were in the air before finally risking a look at her and then back to Ressler. "So… what have I missed?"

The question was as light as he could manage, and clearly not expecting a direct answer to it. He just needed to get one of them talking. He'd spent too long alone in the silence.

Liz didn't answer, and when Tom looked back, Ressler's eyes narrowed. The dark haired man sighed. "You know, if someone were going to use a double, it's a hell of a lot easier to sell a corpse that doesn't need to know anything."

"A corpse can't gather intel," Ressler answered stiffly.

Tom shrugged. "When I was undercover in Halcyon we had a case with body doubles. They were trained to fit in, surgically altered to look close enough to their doubles that they could pass, but they wouldn't have stood up to anything. There's only so much an operative can prepare for."

"Have you ever tried?"

Liz's voice was soft and Tom turned as best as he could to see her. "To fill in for an existing person? You know I have." He waited just a moment, and when she didn't acknowledge the statement he tried for a smile. "I was a dead ringer for a CEO's estranged kid. The ex wife had moved out to the West Coast with him years before and Bud sent me in."

"How old were you?" she prompted, and she looked like it was everything she could do not to latch onto the hope he could see just behind her eyes.

"Sixteen." He pulled in a breath, shifting at the uncomfortable angle. "I told you about it when neither of us could sleep one night. You were seven months pregnant and I was still recovering from when Gina had me shot. You said… that was the first time you told me you hated Bud, and that we'd keep our child safe. Together."

He could see tears start to brim and Liz shook her head.

"How would I know that, Liz? If it weren't me, how could I know that?"

"I don't know," she whispered, "but I can't…."

"Hey," Ressler called lowly, drawing his attention back around. "Enough."

He didn't know what it was, but there was something that had caused Liz to secure herself behind her walls. "It's more than just me, isn't it?" Tom asked softly.

There was a moment of hesitation before his wife's partner nodded. "Yeah."

Tom swallowed hard. "She said Cooper was the one to…. after we were attacked, what happened?"

Ressler hesitated just a moment before finally pushing a long breath from his nose. "She's was in a coma. For ten months."

Tom nodded slowly, settling back and processing what Ressler had said and all that came with it. That would mean she would have been unconscious during any kind of funeral that he might have had, and then by the time she woke up, the world would have moved on. Ten months and there was a good possibility she'd never really found a way to work through her grief, even if she'd forced herself to accept that he was gone.

There wouldn't be any convincing her. Not until she knew for sure. Once she did, once she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, she could let herself believe him and they would be alright. That moment couldn't come quick enough.

* * *

Years before, after Liz had found his go-box hidden in the floor of their home and had run her own investigation, they had brought Tom into the Post Office. He had been escorted in as a suspect in a murder that she had finally learned years later that he'd only been an accomplice to. Bag over his head, he hadn't been deemed dangerous enough at the time to warrant the box. The man they had brought in that day had, and Liz found herself watching him from the computer in her office.

He looked like Tom in every way, from the slouch of his shoulders to the way he tilted his head, blinking hard as if it would teach him for what came next. The way he paced the box, long fingers stretching and curling in an agitated manner. And his voice…. He had finally stopped talking on the flight over. Stopped trying to convince her. She wasn't sure that her resolve would have held if he had kept talking.

The story that he had told in the plane had looped in her mind the remainder of the flight, pulling her deep into the memory. They had laid stretched out together on the couch, her back against his chest, and there had been something about the way that Tom had told the story like it had been just another day in his childhood. He'd told it in the same casual tone that Liz might have described a summer trip to the beach with Sam when she was young. With their own child on her way, Liz had found herself boiling at the thought of Bill McCready and the way he had stolen Tom's own childhood from him. For manipulating and twisting it to his own gain, even if Tom didn't see it that way. Her husband had been surprised at the seething reaction and the conviction in which she had told him that they would protect their child together. He had tightened his hold on her and pressed a kiss to the side of her head, promising her that they would.

But they hadn't. First she had left, leaving him to raise Agnes for the first month of her life, and then he had gone off to Halcyon…. and then he'd died. She had been so angry, so lost that she hadn't dared drag Agnes through it with her. She had nearly lost herself in pursuit of answers, and by the time she found herself as close to solid ground as she thought she ever would again, she was thrust into a the back half of a war with the Cabal. She, Reddington, and what was left of the Task Force were fighting for their lives and for their future. Losing wouldn't just mean their deaths, but likely Agnes' too.

And, if by some miracle Tom had found a way home to her, he would understand why she was hesitating. It was for Agnes. He would understand.

"Not only did you go, but you brought him back."

Liz looked up, tearing her gaze away from the screen to see Reddington lingering at her office door. She purses her lips together, weighing her answer. "I know you didn't want me to go… but I had to."

"You wanted to," he corrected, his voice a bit more gentle than his usual reprimands. He was trying, but the strain to do so was evident in the small twitch of his lips and his carefully chosen words. "I understand the…. desire to hope for the impossible."

"It's hard not to hope when the impossible happens to us. You were seconds away from death when Cooper convinced Diaz to stay the execution," Liz pointed out.

"Seconds away, but Harold didn't have to identify my body."

Liz grimaced at the reminder. "It could be him," she whispered, the hope desperate inside of her.

"The resemblance is remarkable, though appearances _can_ be altered," he reminded her pointedly.

"But DNA can't."

"That could take some time to get back."

"Cooper's pulling some strings." She glanced up. "He knows things… things only Tom should know."

"Should. That doesn't mean that they haven't…" He stopped, and she could see him reining himself back in. She couldn't help to think back to the flippant manner in which he'd referred to her grief while they had both been in a race against the other for the bones. As they faced down a common enemy with the truth finally between them, she had seen his purposeful attempt to shift his approach to her. There were still moments that he spoke to her as a child, but there was a conscious effort to correct the behaviour. To make sure that they faced the Cabal as equals.

There was nothing flippant in his voice now, and she saw the pain reflecting in his eyes as he said, "They have always been willing to use the ones we love the most against us."

 _That doesn't mean it isn't him_ , she wanted to say, but didn't could force the words. She knew how many ways they had hurt him, how many times his own hope had been decimated. He was trying to protect her.

"Let me speak to him." She looked over, finding Reddington's gaze on her and his head bobbled a bit as he continued. "I'm less inclined to be…. Biased."

"There's something else. Something that has you convinced that it's not him. What is it?"

"Your husband was many things, Elizabeth, and foolishly sold on the idea that I was here to harm you was one of them. Yet he hasn't said a word about what he found on the DNA report, has he? The information he was willing to put both of you at risk so that he could get it to you."

Liz sighed, shaking her head. "If he is a double then you'll just be giving the Cabal a chance to-"

"If he is Cabal, we won't give him the chance to get back to them."

The meaning behind the statement weighed heavily between them, but Liz knew that if the results came back that he was anyone other than the man she had fallen in love with, if the Cabal had put a doppelganger into play to try to convince her that Tom was alive, she'd pull the trigger herself.

* * *

He had heard Liz talk about the infamous box that the Task Force had used over the years. It had held Reddington more than once, including when the man had used it to protect himself and Ressler from a man named Garrick had broken in. Kirk had been held there before his health had sent him to the hospital and his eventual escape, and Liz herself had been delivered and nearly killed in that same box. He was pretty sure that Alan Fitch had also met his end inside the walls. Tom hadn't even seen it before that day though. Now he found himself on the wrong side of the glass.

They had taken what they needed from him to run their tests and just left him. He had no doubt that they were listening and watching his every move, assessing every twitch and frustrated sigh that escaped him. None of the Task Force had shown up though, and he hadn't seen Liz since they had gotten there. That had to have been hours ago by this point.

The guard outside the box shifted, drawing Tom's attention on time to see a familiar figure enter. Just not the one he would have preferred.

Raymond Reddington strode into the room. He spoke to the guard who shot him a questioning look before moving away from the box, even if he hadn't left the room. Reddington's gaze flickered to meet Tom's, and the younger man found himself plunged into the last clear memory he had of the other: laid out on the floor of his and Liz's home, bleeding out, and Reddington stepping over him with his gun aimed. Tom had thought that he would end it all right there.

"My, even up close you strike a remarkable resemblance."

Reddington's voice pulled Tom from the memory and dark blue eyes met a lighter shade.

"I hear all the preliminaries check out. All the right scars, tattoos…and a depth of knowledge."

Tom loosed a breath that shook more than he would have liked, his temper starting to boil with each new word. "You're the one that has Liz thinking I'm some sort of double."

"Elizabeth isn't a fool. She knows the lengths our enemies will go to."

"And who exactly is that?"

That infuriating smirk tilted his lips. "I think you know that."

"How's that? Because from what I gathered, the guys that had me dropped me in that hole and left me there for two years. They didn't exactly keep me up to date on the news," Tom snapped, nearly slamming his fist against the thick glass, but stopping himself just in time. Breaking a hand wasn't going to do a damn thing to help him. When he spoke again he could hear the exhaustion he felt in each word. "I've been away from my family for two years. They thought I was dead. My wife doesn't believe me and I have no idea where my daughter is. Just… just tell me-" he looked up to the camera, speaking to Cooper or Ressler or whoever was listening now "- what do you need to know for me to prove it's me?"

"What you don't say speaks volumes," Reddington murmured, turning to leave.

As quickly as the fight had left him, it rushed back and Tom straightened. "Like what? Unlike you, I don't have anything left to hide. I'm exactly who I say I am, but you… No one knows who you are. You've fixed DNA results and people drop like flies around you if they know even a fraction of your secret, but I'm here, and I know what I saw on that test with the bones." Reddington turned slowly as Tom spoke, his expression more shocked than angry. Good. That must have meant Reddington had miscalculated. If he thought Tom was someone else or that he wouldn't dare put everything out in the open, it really didn't matter. "The people that had me might have bought you time, but Liz is gonna find out exactly who you are. Or who you're not. You don't get to keep lying to her."

"And who am I not?" Reddington asked and his tone was careful, as if he didn't dare give anything away that Tom didn't already know.

"The bones that Mr Kaplan dug up, the ones she sent to me to give to Liz… They belonged to Liz's father. The real Raymond Reddington."

He was being recorded. Even if Liz wasn't watching at this exact moment, the Task Force would know. They'd keep her safe. He couldn't touch either of them in here. The strange thing, though, was that he didn't look like wanted to. It took Tom a moment to push past the adrenaline rush that always came with facing down Reddington to see that he didn't look worried at all. He had never moved past the surprise.

"My word," Reddington breathed. "Tom."

* * *

TBC

Notes: So, apparently this will be a three parter lol

But hey, at least Tom inadvertently convinced Red of who he is?


	3. Chapter 3

 

She watched the scene play out on the cameras, the audio filtering through. The angles showed every inch of building frustration and all the signs she knew too well had once belonged to the man she loved. Reddington has always known how to get under Tom's skin and vice versa, the two men never quite trusting each other and ready for the other to slip. It had taken Tom as far as to dive headfirst into an investigation that he'd had no business going at alone. All the secrets that were kept over the years made everyone a little less trusting though. It had made her husband feel he needed all the answers before even bringing it to her, and it had ended with him bleeding out on their living room floor while Liz fought for consciousness.

It had been two years now, and they were facing another secret with an answer just out of their reach. As Liz watched the exchange over the cameras, Reddington's expression was what pushed that hope she had tried to keep in check back to the forefront. It the way he had said her husband's name. She was desperate to stop that hope from growing though. Not until she knew for sure.

"Looks like you got him back."

Liz looked up, startled by the unexpected voice. Aram lingered there, his expression a physical manifestation of his tone, and the sadness that had weighed on him the past few months seemed to have deepened somehow. She knew that feeling. She'd been there, and nothing anyone said could lift it. It dug in deep and burrowed its way inside a person until they felt hollow. Until they were left wondering exactly what they were fighting for. It was the feeling that she wasn't ready to find herself drowning in all over again.

"We don't know that."

"Have you seen him?" he asked, attempting a lighter tone.

"I can't risk it, Aram," Liz answered quietly. "Not until I know for sure."

"I know, but the rest of us can see it. I'm happy for you." She watched him cringe, the back half of his statement not sounding nearly as convincing as the first. Aram pulled in a deep breath. "I should be happy for you."

"I get it."

"I _want_ to be," he pressed. "Really."

"I know." She tried for a smile. "Did you get anything from the aliases while Ress and I were gone?"

Aram shook his head. "No. I don't think I will at this point. Reddington probably got her fresh ones… She's gone." There was no more respect or adoration in his voice when he mentioned Reddington's name. So far he was living up to angry promise that he'd never forgive the other man for his part in Samar's leaving. He worked with him in as far as the Task Force needed him to, but he was colder than Liz had ever thought Aram could be.

"That doesn't mean you won't find her."

"She doesn't want me to find her."

Liz opened her mouth, searching for the right words for that one, but there weren't any. There hadn't been before she left for Bonn and there weren't any now. Samar was gone, and until the Mossad chose to call off the hit, she would stay that way. Hidden away just as much to keep the man she loved safe as to protect herself.

"Keen?"

Ressler rounded the corner behind Aram and Liz hoped that she didn't look as relieved as she felt with a distraction. Any distraction. "What's up?" Her partner paused there, his gaze locked with hers and a fear started to take hold. "Just say it."

He held out a thin packet. "The labs are in."

The fear didn't dissipate with the words, but curled in on itself, winding around with the stress that she'd tried her best to ignore and forming up a knot in her stomach tight enough to make her feel physically sick. It took a moment for Liz to force herself to her feet and take the packet. It felt heavier than it had any right to be for its size, and it took a long moment for her open it.

* * *

He'd been left alone again after Reddington had left. The older man hadn't bothered to add anything to his muttered name. Tom had expected something at least. Anger, denial… something, but instead Reddington had turned on his heel and left him alone in the box without another word.

Tom had waited and hoped that it would lead to something - at the very least a visit from Cooper or Ressler or Samar - but no one came, and eventually he slid down the side of the thick glass to the box's floor and sat heavily there until the sound of the doors opening finally drew his attention some time later.

Liz stride into the room and Tom was on his feet in an instant. Her gaze was fixed on him and there was a determination in her eyes that reminded him just how much he'd missed her. He pressed a hand against the glass, but he hadn't expected the box to open. Tom stepped back, the glass pulling away. He didn't dare move towards her.

He didn't have to though. As soon as the door was open enough Liz sprang forward and Tom felt a breath of relief rush out of him as her arms went around his neck. He pulled her in, holding on tight. He could feel her fingers tangled in the material of his shirt at his back and the way her dark hair tickled his nose as he pressed a kiss to the side of her head. She pulled back, but before he could say anything she was guiding him down into a kiss. Tom sank happily into it, a laugh escaping him as he shifted his hold on her and lifted her up, her feet off the floor.

Liz didn't break the kiss, only shifted a little so her fingers moved through his hair - shaggy and longer than he usually kept it after being held so long - and he felt her smile against his lips as one finger brushed against an old scar hidden there.

She finally pulled back, still smiling, and he set her down. Tom leaned in so that his forehead touched hers. Part of him wanted to ask if the results had come back that quickly or if it had something to do with what he'd said to Reddington. Neither question made it from his lips though. They didn't matter. Not right now. "I've missed you so much," he confessed softly.

"It's funny," she murmured, "I was so scared that they were trying to use you against me - that it was all a lie - that even when the test results came in I kept thinking about everything they could have done to fake them. How they could have…." she pulled in a struggling breath and a strained chuckle escaped on it as she reached back up to the scar just past his hairline. "They couldn't have known about this."

"Who would have thought you pegging me with a coffee cup a decade ago would be what convinced you?" He couldn't quite keep the amusement out of his voice. before he ducked down to steal another kiss.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you," she whispered, only barely pulling away.

"Something tells me you have your reasons."

She nodded and Tom saw her expression tighten. Whatever she had been through in the past few years had been as hellish as his own and it weighed on her.

"Why don't we head home, grab Wing Yee's on the way, and I'll fill you in?"

The yes nearly rolled off his tongue before he stopped, his gaze snapping past her to where Reddington and Ressler stood speaking in the doorway. "Liz, there's something I need to-"

"I know."

He blinked hard. "What?"

"I know that Reddington isn't…. c'mon. It's a long story."

She took his hand and Tom let her lead him out of the box.

* * *

Getting back to the apartment had taken longer than either of them had expected. Reddington didn't bother saying anything further, but Cooper had stopped them on their way out. The man had looked at him like he'd seen a ghost, and Tom remembered that Liz had told him in Bonn that Cooper had been the one to identify him… or who he had thought was him. The assistant director shook his head, smiling, and clapped Tom on the shoulder, welcoming him home. Even Ressler had seemed almost relieved with the results of the DNA test that had been run. Aram had lingered back, and Tom couldn't help but notice the fact that Samar was conspicuously missing and added that to his growing list of questions.

He hadn't realized just how hungry he was until he and Liz grabbed the Chinese food to go to take back to the apartment, and it took more self control than he would have liked to admit to stay out of it until they got there.

"I'm kinda surprised you didn't move," he admitted as they walked in.

Liz made a small, noncommittal sound. "We paid it off when we bought it so it just… stayed here while I was in the hospital."

"How long?" he asked quietly.

"A while. After I got out, and after I was…. ready, it was my crime scene. It just didn't make sense to sell it."

"Yeah, because that's a totally normal reason to hold onto a place," he teased lightly and followed her to the table.

"I followed the trail to a US Marshal names Ian Garvey. He's dead." Tom watched her swallow hard and he reached over, his hand brushing hers as he started to unpack their food she had carried in. She pulled in a breath, continuing. "Found my sister."

"Jennifer?"

She nodded as he laid the food out and they both took a seat. "We turned the investigation towards Reddington. You left a nice trail to follow."

"Did my best."

"Would have preferred to have followed it _with_ you," she said, her voice sharp.

He reached out. There were reasons he'd held onto the information he did know as long as he had, but those didn't matter now. Right or wrong, it couldn't be changed. "I know. I'm sorry."

Liz nodded and took his hand, holding on tight and she blinked tears back. "Found the answer, sort of, and nearly got him killed in the process. We…. have an understanding." She broke her chopsticks apart. "Samar's gone."

"Dead?"

"Almost. She's in hiding. The…. Mossad put out a hit on her through the Umbrella Company."

Tom cringed. "They're brutal."

"Yeah. Aram's taking it hard."

Tom shuffled a bite of food in and savoured it a moment. Definitely better than what he'd gotten used to for the last couple of years. He met Liz's gaze as he swallowed it down. "You said Agnes is safe, but you didn't say where she is."

"With your mother. I was going to bring her home, but the Cabal-"

"I thought they were gone."

"Not all of them. They're the ones we're fighting against."

"And that's how you found me?"

"Yeah…. They've been playing the long game with us."

"Maybe longer than you thought."

She met his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"They never called me Tom or even Keen. It was always Hargrave." He watched the understanding of what that could mean settle into her expression and he tried for a smile. "It's okay," he promised. "We'll get them."

She nodded and reached out for him again. "I know, I just…."

He pulled her hand up to his lips, pressing a kiss to it. "How long have you been up?"

"Uhh…"

"Yeah, me too," Tom chuckled. "What do you say we get this cleaned up, I'm going to hop through a much needed shower, and then we get some sleep? We'll tackle how to save the world from the shadow organization that may have been after both of us since we were kids tomorrow. What do you say?"

He watched Liz's strained expression slowly melt into something like a shadow of the smile he'd always loved and she nodded. He stood, pressing a kiss to her forehead before grabbing what he could of their leftovers to put in the fridge.

* * *

She kept expecting to wake up from the dream. First when the labs came in, then on the way home, and again when she slipped into the shower behind him, the water splashing down on them both. She hadn't, though, and Tom had turned those dark blue eyes and quirked little smile on her and Liz had pulled him into another kiss. Another way to prove to herself that it was him and he was there. Two years of thinking that he was dead, but now she had him back. If his reaction to her joining him in the shower was anything to go by, he'd missed her just as much as she had him.

Liz toweled off her wet hair and slipped into her sleeping shorts and one of his old t-shirts. He didn't comment on it, but she thought she saw him smile when he saw it. In the morning they'd regroup. It was dangerous to reach out to Scottie right now, and both of Agnes' parents wanted to make sure that they didn't endanger either their daughter or Tom's mother by reaching out too soon and leading the Cabal right to them. For that night, though, they were together and they were as safe as they could expect to be in the circumstances that they found themselves in.

The only time that she'd really slept in their bed since he'd been gone was when Jennifer had stayed the night. Liz had tried to offer her sister the bed so she could camp out on the couch, but the older woman had misread it and had turned her down every time. Liz hadn't been able to voice that she couldn't get a good night's sleep when every time she rolled over she expected to find her husband sleeping next to her. That night she would. That night and, hopefully, every night that would follow.

"What?" Tom chuckled, paused halfway to pulling the covers back.

"I've just missed you."

He nodded, accepting that, and crawled in. She slipped in just a moment later, meeting him in the middle of the bed, both tucked under the sheet and comforter. "I'm not going anywhere," he promised, close enough that she could feel his breath. "Ever again."

"Promise?"

He kissed her forehead. "Yeah."

Liz nodded and felt Tom's arm snake around as he rolled onto his back, pulling her with him so that she was comfortably tucked against his chest. For the first time in what felt like forever the tension slowly started to ease away and she let her eyes slip closed. She had found him, even without knowing that she should be looking. She'd found him and he'd found his way home to her. Theirs was a story that seemed to constantly defy the odds that they were put up against. Faced with the Cabal, she need that. She needed him.

Tom's long fingers worked their way through her hair in a soothing way and she felt herself relax against his chest, the sound of his steady heartbeat easing her towards sleep.

* * *

 **End**.

 

Notes: Life has been absolutely crazy lately.... this chapter should never have taken this long. Here it is though, and I hope you enjoy the fluffy ending.

This afternoon I'm hoping to do some editing on my pilot script and who knows? Maybe even jump into working on my next multi chapter fic this weekend? We'll see how that goes. I don't have a title for it that I'm sold on yet, but the gist of it is that Tom loses around 10 years of his life after a procedure gone wrong while Liz sleeps in her coma. He goes back to his life with St Regis and Liz lives hers thinking he's dead. Stuff happens, and imagine that: the Keens get tossed back together.  I don't know when I'll start posting it. My first priority has to be to my scripts and the fellowship apps I have coming up, but hopefully soon-ish. At the very least, I think it'll be a summer project over the Blacklist hiatus.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm putting this in the Truth in the Lies set because, while I think it will likely be a two or three parter, it won't be a full multi chapter. It's really just focused on the Keens and this momentary journey. Because I couldn't shake the plot bunny, so I thought I'd try to contain it instead lol
> 
> I have no idea when the next part will be up. I've been super busy with my original work and my day job. Hopefully soon though!


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